


Eleven Dangerous Liaisons of Varying Degrees of Canonical Plausibility

by edna_blackadder



Category: Mack the Knife (1989)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-23
Updated: 2009-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-07 08:22:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/746377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edna_blackadder/pseuds/edna_blackadder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exactly what it says on the tin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eleven Dangerous Liaisons of Varying Degrees of Canonical Plausibility

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to sarcasticsra for the beta.

They went to war, as men do. They killed the dark ones, as men do. In the rush of victory they turned to each other, as men do, and their mouths crushed together. Their uniforms lay scattered on the ground, and their bodies lay tangled together on the bed, and they felt no shame as their heartbeats slowly returned to normal.

Their affair ended upon their return to England, but their love remained. Tiger Brown became Police Commissioner, and Macheath took up his life of crime, but the two men remained partners, and Mack the Knife trusted no one more.

*

She was the only one he never married, but she was also the only one he actually loved. He built his reputation, leaving her to the mercy of any man with some money, but when the sun came up he returned to her and shared his spoils with her.

When his name appeared in the papers, both Macheath and Jenny knew it was over; he would be elevated to dashing highwayman and she would remain a common whore. She accepted this, but when she learned he had wed Suky Tawdry, her heart turned to stone. One Thursday, he would pay.

*

At first Macheath held her in no higher regard than the Indians he’d slain by the hundreds, but her supple little body felt intoxicatingly good against his, and she was just so starry-eyed and sweet, not hardened and cynical like his beloved Jenny. Gradually he came to view her as an exotic prize to be won, and Suky Tawdry, the infamous Chinese madam of the docks, became the first bride of Mack the Knife.

Not that he stayed with her. Fame had its price, and he had no intention of being hanged before he could marry a respectable woman.

*

The Street Singer entered the whorehouse as a boy on a dare, and after one hour with Jenny, he left it a man. She took pity on his inexperience and revelled in it. She had to make a living, and she rarely got the chance to enjoy a body that was genuinely desirable.

He lost no time in boasting to his friends, and when he returned a day later, Jenny made a beeline for him. After so many years as Macheath’s lover, she had forgotten just how good it felt to be in control, and he unwittingly helped her remember.

*

Macheath had not been with a man since returning from the Army, and Mack the Knife surely couldn’t be rumored queer, but he had never been above self-indulgence, and the handsome Street Singer, so cheerfully lyrical and convinced of his cleverness, quickly became another coveted prize. Macheath found himself obsessively infatuated, so he coaxed the young man into his bed for a night of unforgettable pleasure.

Afterwards he tossed his impoverished poet aside like any other lover, but the Street Singer took this in stride. He continued to chide Mack the Knife’s blushing women, too amused to be hurt.

*

She was Tiger Brown’s daughter, and he drank with his dear old friend in celebration of her birth, but Macheath didn’t give her much thought until she was about sixteen, when he looked up and noticed that she had become a woman. He then wasted no time in romancing and marrying her. Lucy Brown, the Police Commissioner’s daughter, could be his respectable wife, adding to the mystique of Mack the Knife.

But Lucy did not understand him as her father did, and when he realised that she expected him to be a proper husband, he slipped quietly out of town.

*

Macheath’s marriage to Suky Tawdry had hurt her, but his marriage to Lucy Brown simply disgusted her. Jenny alone knew just how intimate he and the Police Commissioner had been in India, and so she knew that now, Tiger Brown must finally know as well as she did that Macheath could and would hurt all of his lovers, whether he loved them or not.

She sought him out in his office, and they split a bottle of whiskey as they abused Mack the Knife, and in the bitter warmth of drunkenness, she comforted him in the way she knew best.

*

From the moment he saw her, Macheath knew that he had at last found his ideal wife. Polly Peachum was young and beautiful, naïve enough to believe he loved her but spirited enough to handle his henchmen. His third bride was a charm.

When Polly presented him with his police file, his blood ran cold at the betrayal of a much truer lover. Macheath never considered that perhaps, in marrying Tiger Brown’s daughter, leaving her and then inviting her father to his next wedding, showing off his more perfect bride, he might have finally pushed his old friend too far.

*

They had both loved Macheath, but the Suky Tawdry revelation was more than either could take. Polly watched the freed Mack the Knife enjoy his unearned rewards, and her hatred for Lucy gave way to sympathy. She attempted to embrace the sobbing girl, but Lucy pushed her away, as merciless as before.

Possessed by a rage she could not understand, Polly threw herself on top of Lucy and kissed her with punishing force. After a minute she pulled away, stunned by her own actions, but Lucy wasn’t struggling. Polly saw need in her eyes, and bent to kiss her again.

*

In the cold light of day, the Street Singer had been right about everything, but that only intensified Polly’s wish for revenge. When she saw him next, shamed without her husband, he offered a kindly patronising rhyme, and she felt herself snap once again. She seized his cock as she had done Macheath’s henchman, and then she silenced his howls by kissing him as forcefully as she had Lucy.

Afterwards he laughed. She stared at him, confused and still not quite able to believe what she had just done. He answered her unspoken question: “You’re even better than he was.”

*

Turned out by her parents and abandoned by Mack the Knife, there was only one place Polly could go in this harsh world. When Thursday came and went without Macheath, she heard Jenny sigh. “Now I’m truly finished with men.”

Without thinking, Polly asked, “Are you?”

Jenny took in Polly’s undisguised appraisal of her. She was undoubtedly sexy, and tougher than Jenny had given her credit for. Mack the Knife had good taste.

She hadn’t been with a woman in years, and that hadn’t been what she’d meant to imply, but why not? “Come with me,” she said, smiling widely.


End file.
